The Unattended Garden...

[oakley]

What idiot leaves their garden the entire month of July?

I'll quote myself,
The pleasures of gardening, a successful garden season, involves mindfulness, patience,
a healthy appetite for learning, researching and problem solving, and most important...
acceptance.

Acceptance.

After a three day trip, across the Island of Newfoundland, PortAuxBasque sailing the
Gulf of St Lawrence, a night in St Lawrence by the sea NB, into Maine, the MassPike to
the Catskill Mnt farm...Saturday night at sunset. (planned to stop at Johnny's but closed
on the weekends, darn)
Lush and green, weekly thunderstorms, I walked to the garden with my Felco pruners.
Biggest disappointment was the tomatoes. Seem suspended in time and barely waist
high. Healthy but expected a jungle. Brad's Atomic Grape is loaded with fruit.

Summer/winter squash huge and healthy, garlic amazing. Peppers seem ok.

Salanova trial lettuce looks fake it is so healthy...the only of all the salad that survived.
Beautiful full heads looking like hot house grown.

Our spring filter system failed at some point, full of crawdads. Too complicated to expect
our neighbors to solve that issue.

Picked a fifth of the garlic so I could get in some other crops...(how did I miss so many
scapes?)...I think I picked too soon but had to take a look, then could not stop.

[oakley]

Another nice surprise is the 5yr plan on the lawn letting the wild thyme go to seed and
mowing into the paths come Fall. A month without mowing let it grow naturally...
usually let a couple feet on the edges un-mowed mid season....

[oakley]

Spent Sunday morning in a chair watching the Monarchs frolic. We have probably
3 thousand+ Milkweed in a few different clusters I have let run wild.
Sat my chair right in the middle of it all.

Hummingbird Moths and bees and Monarchs all sharing the nectar....
Priceless hour spent.

[oakley]

Wysteria is taking over the barn fridge, lol.
(that Dale'sPaleAle tasted so good after being in a car so long)

[Randall]

Very nice!

[Labradors2]

Simply lovely! I LOVE how your Thyme has established itself - and the picture of the Thyme and (is it?) Birds Foot Trefoil is gorgeous! The Milkweed and visitors are glorious too and I bet it smells divine!

Linda

[oakley]

Back in the city for work. The deck garden also suffered drip irrigation failure....
probably human error but it was working fine when we left. All survived fine and got a
big dose of food and water...should recover fine.
Fortunately we had plenty of storms to keep things alive....
All dwarf projects and dFollette micros.

That basil is huge, over 2 ft. The celery from an organic knob end started indoors is
huge. Rosemary, thyme, tarragon all good.

The volunteer tomato, a thumb thick stem, huge and healthy, I thought was my favorite
CubanYellowGrape, is a pear, eww. lol. I tenderly trained it espalier on the railing.

Lots of tasting of toms tonight.

[oakley]

First meal back home...the GreatAmericanBurger with Salanova lettuce, tomatoes from
Masstown Market in NovaScotia, made Blueberry Pie from the first of the wild berries from a
Maine roadside stand. Newfoundland Fussels clotted cream. (from Holland)

[oakley]

So...the best of the best neglected?
Brad'sAtomicGrape, Salanova lettuce from Johnny's, Dan dFollette's winter grown micros
that are not micro but producing a massive amount of great big dark cherries and the
winter grown DwarfPinkPassion is loaded with fruit. RemyRouge is also doing well,
winter grown.

One lesson learned is starting a early tray of dwarf/micros, selecting for, and culling for
small stature, will give very early fruit once placed outdoors once snow melts, weather
warms.
Easy to keep in a sunny window, or under light, being so small not needing support.

Hoping the F5's are tasty. All are under 8inches or less.

[bower]

I'm glad most everything did so well while you were gone!
I have wild thyme (mother o thyme) in my paths, but the flowers are a pale lavender, your color is brilliant!

[oakley]

Originally Posted by bower

I'm glad most everything did so well while you were gone!
I have wild thyme (mother o thyme) in my paths, but the flowers are a pale lavender, your color is brilliant!

Heartbreaking leaving Newfoundland. Nice to have 40lbs of Cod and another 20 Ibs traveled
in a pickle...salted and now soaking for the freezer.
Another 20lbs from a neighbor that does traditional salting on flecks. Flakes.

One third of the Hugel bed I planted soaked peas and 'who-knows-what' like leeks,
French bush beans, dwarf sunflowers, rudbeckia, lots of milkweed...
Nice to know how well Thyme will do...next year, as I have many seed.

Neighbors will send pics as they are very curious about this Hugel bed,

[ddsack]

It's always good to get back home, especially to a lovely property such as yours! Looks like most of the plants did pretty darn well during their period of neglect, sounds like you'll still have a good harvest. Sorry about the auto drip system malfunctioning, did you get it working again?

Love the look of that blueberry pie! How did you make that crust? Recipe please!

[Starlight]

Simply beautiful! I'd never get anything done. I'd be sitting in a chair allday just looking out over the land and watching the butterflies.

Glad you enjoyed your trip and that your garden kept right on growing for you.

P.S. I'll give you scoop of ice cream if you share a piece of that blueberry pie. ; )

[imp]

Really lovely, o green and lush!

[MissS]

Originally Posted by oakley

Heartbreaking leaving Newfoundland.

Your home is a beautiful place. I don't think that I would want to leave...